Saturday,
February 10, 2007
In
The
ANNOTICO Report
In
In
An
enormously interesting observation: So successful was this "scandal"
that opponents of Berlusconi now accuse him of orchestrating it for political
advantage. :) :) :)
The Italians Know How To Do It Right
Thursday
Thoughts
By
Maggie Gallagher:
The
February
8,2007
I
want an Italian sex scandal.
In
Take Gavin Newsom, for example. He's the young, glam Catholic mayor of San
Francisco who first burst into the national news by unilaterally licensing
thousands of gay couples to marry in San Francisco, contrary to state law -
which even the California Supreme Court couldn't quite approve, but no matter.
He and his beautiful wife, now an anchor for Fox News, became the new Dem power
couple ("The New Kennedys" slobbered the
Harper's Bazaar photo spread). Their brief, bicoastal marriage faded to a quiet
divorce in 2005, but the young, handsome and definitely not-gay bachelor
mayor's solo glitterati quotient soared anyway: Seventy percent of San
Franciscans in recent polls said they wanted to re-elect the mayor this
November.
How can a bachelor mayor have a sex scandal these days, anyway? It was once
famously said of a Louisiana Democrat that unless he was found in bed
"with a live boy or a dead girl," his re-election was certain. Seeing
as Newsom is the mayor of
Give the man credit for the clearest, most comprehensive confession ever seen
on the American political stage: "I want to make it clear that everything
you've heard and read is true, and I am deeply sorry about that."
"Everything" in this case includes having sex with his secretary, who
was also the wife of his good friend and campaign manager. We know all this
because the secretary/wife felt obliged to confess her sins as part of her
alcohol rehab journey. This week, the mayor announced his own outpatient
alcohol rehab journey is just beginning.
The thing about American sex scandals is that they seem so puritanical: so
grim, so unpleasant, so, well, tawdry. I suppose it's good for public morals.
In
At this point, I'm trying to imagine how, say, an American presidential
candidate would be advised to respond if such a letter from his wife was
published in The New York Times. What would Dick Morris do?
I don't know, but probably not this: "Forgive me, I beg you. And take this
public show of my private pride giving in to your fury as an act of love. One
of many," wrote Berlusconi in a public response.
Nobody went into rehab. Instead, his wife withdrew to a convent for three days
to contemplate her reaction to his public apology. (She ultimately decided to
accept.)
So successful was this "scandal" that opponents of Berlusconi now
accuse him of orchestrating it for political advantage.
Sigh. If we cannot have dignity in high office, could we demand a higher
quality of drama, please?
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